The Hill News

Senate Democrats on Wednesday will present a united front with President Obama, in a day of counter-programming to spending cuts in the Republican-held House.

Senate Democratic leadership will lay out their own agenda in the morning, mirroring Obama's "Win the Future" mantra, and head down Pennsylvania Avenue in the afternoon to huddle with the president and Vice President Biden at the White House.

Their actions on Wednesday give Democrats perhaps the best chance so far this week to push against the headline-grabbing action in the GOP House, which will continue with debate today on a measure funding government the rest of the fiscal year while cutting $61 billion from the budget.

The Senate Democrats, at their press conference in the morning, will lay out their jobs agenda and formally announce that Senate Democrats support Obama's five-year freeze on domestic, discretionary spending, according to a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader ! Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

That availability should convey Democrats' legislative priorities for the next few months, as well as a sense of solidarity with the budget released by the White House on Monday. Still, even some Senate Democrats have argued the administration needs to be more aggressive in its efforts to address the deficit.

"Two years ago this week, Senate Democrats' 'jobs agenda' was adding a trillion dollars to the debt through the stimulus bill with a promise of bringing the unemployment rate down to seven percent by now," said Don Stewart, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) deputy chief of staff.

"These same Democrats argue this week that the Washington spending they pushed is growing too fast and that we ought to freeze a fraction of it," added Stewart. "Sadly, that 'jobs agenda' will lock in a rate of spending that even the President now acknowledges needs to be reduced. But a freeze won't cut it."

Republica! ns in the House and Senate have gladly highlighted those Democ! ratic cr itics of the administration's proposal, and have trumpeted their own criticism, too, saying the president's budget is essentially dead on arrival in the House.

The tension between Republicans and Obama escalated further on Tuesday afternoon, after the administration issued a veto threat of the Republicans' continuing resolution, saying the cuts -- $100 billion less than what Obama requested in his budget last year -- were far too deep.

Still, the House GOP is showing no signs of relenting in their pursuit of the cuts, and said Tuesday that their own forthcoming budget would not only propose more cuts, but also include plans to reform entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

How the Democratic Senate and the administration intend to respond to those Republican measures will no doubt be on the agenda when Obama and Biden meet Wednesday afternoon with Reid, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the head of Senate Democrats' campaign committee.